Wheel press

ABSTRACT

A wheel press for removing extremely large tyres from their support rims, such as the tyres fitted to large Euclid type trucks having a load carrying capacity of about one hundred tons and upwards, and comprising a main support frame which supports in operative manner a pair of opposed platen assemblies, there being provided actuating means which co-operates with the platen assemblies to urge them towards or away from one another. The platen assemblies are provided with wheel engaging members which may be adjusted, to suit different sized wheels, to engage the parts of the wheel to be pressed, and said platen assemblies may be selectively arranged in an inoperative disposition, wherein a wheel can be easily loaded onto the wheel press.

7 United States Patent [191 Mott 1 1451 Apr. 30, 1974 WHEEL PRESS [76] Inventor: Daniel Badelier Mott, 160 The Esplanade, Burleigh Heads, Australia [22] Filed: July 27, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 275,645

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data July 30, 1971 Australia 5737/71 52 us. 01 157/133, 157/12, 157/126 51 1m.c|.....- ..B60c 25/06 [58] Field of Search l57/l.'2, 126,128, 1.17,

[56] References Cited r 2 UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,266,548 8/1966 Kolosowsky 157/133 2,832,400 4/1958 Laughlin 15711.28 3,213,916 10/1965 Oliver 157/128 Primary Examiner-Granville Y. Custer, Jr. Assistant Examiner-Harold P. Smith, Jr. Attorney, Agent, or Firm--A1lison C. Collard [57] ABSTRACT A wheel press for removing extremely large tyres from their support rims, such as the tyres fitted to large Euclid type trucks having a load carrying capacity of about one hundred tons and upwards, and comprising a main support frame which supports in operative manner atpair of opposed platen assemblies, there being provided actuating means which co-operates with the platen assemblies to urge them towards or away from one another; The platen assemblies are provided with wheel engaging members which may be adjusted, tosuit different sized wheels, to engage the parts of the wheel to be pressed, and said platen assemblies may be selectively arranged in an inoperative disposition, wherein a wheel can be easily loaded onto the wheel press.

11 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEDAPRBO i914 SHEET 1 OF 3 eE/F XE WHEEL PRESS This invention relates to animproved wheel press for removing tyres from wheel rims.

The invention has been devised to provide a wheel press for removing extremely large tyres from their support rims. At present, most wheel presses used for this operation are cumbersome and often require the assistance of a crane to lift the wheel on to the press, as well as requiring the crane to lift the upper press member operatively on to the upper portion of the wheel. That is, the press is assembled around the wheel, once it has been placed on the bottom platen of the press. While these presses work effectively, the replacement and removal of the wheelfrom the press is difficult and time consuming and the cost of each tyre changing operation is very high.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved wheel press which will overcome the above disadvantages of the presently available tyre presses and which will prove reliableand efficient in operation. Other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafter become apparent.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, this invention resides broadly in a wheel press for parting tyres from wheel rims comprising a main support frame which supports a pair of opposed platen assemblies, each having a substantially planar press surface and actuating means operable to urge the press surfaces of the said platen assemblies together or apart and wheel engaging means on said platen assemblies for engagement with the part of the wheel to be pressed, said wheel press being so made and arranged that the platen assemblies may be disposed in an inoperative pressing position to enable a wheel to be loaded on to the wheel press.

Preferably, the wheel press'may be disposed in its inoperative pressing position by removing one of the said platen assemblies in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the platen assemblies during pressing operations, from its operative,

pressing position to a wheel loading position spaced from its said operative pressing position.

It is also preferred that the actuating means which is operable to urge the said platen assemblies together or apart comprises a plurality of extensible hydraulic rams connected between the main frame and one of the said platen assemblies and wherein displacement equalizing means are provided to prevent mis-alignment of the said one platen assembly with respect to the said main frame.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate I a preferred embodiment of the invention wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates the'preferred form of wheel press according to the invention with the. bottom platen assembly in its pressing position,

FIG. 2 illustrates the preferred form of wheel press with the bottom platen assembly in its wheel loading position,

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view through a typical wheel assembly, showing the operative positions of the wheel engaging members of the wheel press during the first stage of pressing,

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 with the wheel engaging members of the wheel press positioned for the second stage of the pressing, and

FIG. 5 is a view of the wheel manipulating apparatus used to load and unload the wheel on and from the wheel press.

Referring now to the drawings there is shown a wheel press 10 having top and bottom platen assemblies mounted within a box-like frame assembly 11. The frame assembly 11 has a support base 12 and four vertically extending guidemembers 13 which locate therein the vertically movable top platen assembly 15. In this embodiment the top platen assembly 15 is mounted slidably between the adjacent end pairs of guide members 13 and its movement therealong in the vertical direction is controlled by four simultaneous acting hydraulic rams 16, while the bottom platen assembly 17 is fixed pivotally to the main frame 11 by the pivot assembly 18. During the pressing operation the bottom platen assembly 17 rests on and is supported by the support base 12. A selectively operable hydraulic ram 19 is mounted between the bottom platen assembly 17 and the main frame 11, and it is selectively operable to allow the bottom platen assembly to be pivoted away. from the main frame 11 as shown in FIG. 2.

In order to support the bottom platen assembly 17 in this position, that is in its loading position, a pair of support castor wheels 20 are mounted on the outermost portions of the bottom platen assembly 17 and these supportthe .platen assembly in its loading position. As

can be seen from the drawings, both the top platen assembly l5 and the bottom platen assembly 17 comprise apair ofmutually perpendicular diagonal members 24, each of which has fixed along its inner face a guide rail assembly 25 along which wheel engaging means 26 may be selectively moved to' enable the press to be used with different sized wheels;

In operation, the bottom platen assembly is moved to its loading position where it is remote from the main frame. In this position the space above the bottom platen is free and a wheel 22 can be loaded thereon by means of a wheel manipulator. Preferably, the wheel is removed from the truck and loaded on to the bottom platen assembly by the wheel manipulator assembly illustrated in FIG. 5. The four wheelengaging members 26 are adjusted inwards and outwards from a common central point on the platen assemblies which coincides with the axis of the wheel when mounted operatively in the press 10, to suit the wheel 22 being pressed. The positioning ram 19 is then actuated to pivot the bottom platen assembly 17 to its wheel pressing position within the main frame 11, and beneath the top platen assembly 15. In this position the bottom platen assembly 17 is supported on the support base 12 of the main frame 11. The four wheel engaging members 26 of the top platen assembly 15 are then adjusted to suit the wheel 22 being pressed, and the rams 16 are actuated to press the tyre 27 free of the rim assembly 28. The bottom platen assembly 17 is then moved to its unloading position to allow the supported wheel assembly to be removed;

Normally, when the wheel press is used with the split rims commonly used, the pressing operation is carried out in two distinct operations. For this purpose each wheel engaging member 26 has two press surfaces, namely, a first press surface 30 which extends tangentially to the wheel rim of a wheel located operatively on the wheel press and formed by the innermost portion of the upstanding plate 31, and a second press surface 32 which extends radially of the wheel axis for engagement with the wheel rim and formed by the radially extending stiffening gusset 33. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the first pressing operation is carried out with the lower wheel engaging members 26 arranged so that their second pressing surfaces 32 abut the lower edge 34 of the wheel rim 35. The upper wheel engaging members 26 are then positioned so that their first press surfaces 30 abut the exposed outer portions of the bead ring 36. This ring is then pressed downwards until the circlip 37 is free from its groove 38 in the wheel rim 35 and until the bead seat ring 39 abuts the shoulder 46 of the rim and is freed from the bead ring. Once this has been freed the bead ring 36 can be removed along with the bead seat ring 39.

The wheel 22 is then connected by hooks or the like to the upper platen and raised therewith so that the lower wheel engaging members can be moved outwards. They are then re-positioned with their first press surfaces 30 abutting the lower annular side plate 40. The four upper wheel engaging members 26 are then re-positioned so that their first press surfaces 30 engage the wheel rim 35 which is then pressed through the tyre 27, which is supported by the lower annular bead ring 40. The wheel rim assembly 28 is then completely dismantled and the tyre can be removed from the wheel press by actuating the positioning ram 19, to move the bottom platen assembly away from the main frame 11. In a similar but reverse manner, a tyre may be replaced onto the rim.

The top platen assembly is provided with equalizing means 41 to prevent it from tiltingin operation. In the illustrated embodiment, the equalizing means 41 comprises a pair ,of shafts 42 which extend along the top of the platen assembly 15 and which are fixed rotatably in use by housings 43 at both ends of the top platen assembly 15. The ends of these shafts are each provided with a sprocket 44 or a gear or the like which is fixed thereto and engages with a vertically extending chain 45, or gear rack or the like, fixed to each guide member 11. Thus, any tendency to tilt will be counteracted immediately by torque transfer through the shafts 42.

While the above illustrates one embodiment of the invention the top platen assembly could for example be urged by a mechanical press means and the bottom assembly could be supported for example on a pair of rails and winched from its wheel receiving position to its wheel pressing position.

Thus, while the above has been given by way of illustrative example it will of course be realised that many modifications of constructional detail and design may be made to the above described embodiments by persons skilled in the art without departing from the broad scope and ambit of the invention as is defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A wheel press for separating tires from wheel rims comprising a main support frame having mounted thereon in operative manner a pair of opposed platen assemblies,

actuating means cooperating with said platen assemblies and operable for selective approach and retraction motion relative to said platen assemblies,

wheel engaging means on said platen assemblies for engagement with the parts of the wheel to be pressed, said platen assemblies being in overlying alignment for pressing operations and capable of sufiicient separation within said main frame for the insertion of said wheel between said platen assemblies, and

guide means connected between said main frame and one said platen assembly for guiding said connected platen assembly from pressing alignment to a loading position outside of said main frame to enable a wheel to be loaded onto said connected platen assembly for subsequent movement of said connected platen assembly guided by said guide means from said loading position to said pressing alignment to enable the wheel loaded thereon to be pressed.

2. A wheel press according to claim 1 wherein said wheel engaging means comprise a plurality of spaced wheel engaging members on each platen assembly for supporting the wheel therebetween, each wheel engaging member being selectively movable in a radial direction with respect to a central point on each respective platen assembly and said point coincides substantially with the axis of a wheel operatively mounted on the wheel press.

3. A wheel press according to claim 2 and wherein each wheel engaging member is selectively movable along a track assembly fixed to the respective platen assemblies.

4. A wheel press according to claim 2 wherein each engaging member has two operable press surfaces, a first press surface which extends tangentially to the wheel rim of a wheel located operatively onthe wheel press and a second press surface which extends radially of the said wheel axis for engagement with the wheel rim.

.5. A wheel press according to claim 4 wherein the distance between each said first press surface and a track assembly for said wheel engaging members is greater than the width of said wheel rim.

6. A wheel press according to claim 1 wherein said guide means guides said connected platen assembly for movement in a plane substantially perpendicular to the direction of relative movement of the platen assemblies during pressing operations.

7. A wheel press according to claim 6 wherein each platen assembly is provided with substantially horizontal press surfaces, the upper platen assembly is selectively movable by said actuating means in a vertical direction towards and away from the bottom platen assembly which is restrained against movement in a vertical direction by said main frame, said guide means comprising a substantially vertical pivot means for connecting said bottom platen assembly to said main frame for guided pivotal movement of said bottom platen assembly in a substantially horizontal plane, and means operable to selectively pivot said bottom platen assembly about said vertical pivot axis to and from said pressing alignment and said loading position.

8. A wheel press according to claim 7, wherein the means to selectively pivot the bottom platen assembly about its said vertical axis comprises a manually controlled extensible hydraulic ram connected between the bottom platen assembly and the main frame.

9. A wheel press according to claim 1,

10. A wheel press according to claim 9, wherein said equalizing means comprises a positively acting mechanical assembly interconnected between said movable platen assembly and said main frame and arranged to positively counteract any'tendency of mis-alignment between the said movable platen assembly and the said main frame.

11. A wheel press according to claim 10, wherein said equalizing means includes a pair of shafts which extend along the said movable platen assembly in parallel spaced apart relationship remote from the said press surfaces, said shafts being fixed to the movable platen assembly for rotation about their longitudinal axes and being provided at each end with a sprocket or gear or the like fixed thereto, each of said sprockets or gears being arranged to engage with a length of chain or gear rack fixed to the main frame assembly in parallel relationship with the direction of movement of the said movable platen assembly, and wherein misalignment at one end of said one platen assembly is counteracted at the other end of said one platen assembly by torque transmission through said shafts. 

1. A wheel press for separating tires from wheel rims comprising a main support frame having mounted thereon in operative manner a pair of opposed platen assemblies, actuating means cooperating with said platen assemblies and operable for selective approach and retraction motion relative to said platen assemblies, wheel engaging means on said platen assemblies for engagement with the parts of the wheel to be pressed, said platen assemblies being in overlying alignment for pressing operations and capable of sufficient separation within said main frame for the insertion of said wheel between said platen assemblies, and guide means connected between said main frame and one said platen assembly for guiding said connected platen assembly from pressing alignment to a loading position outside of said main frame to enable a wheel to be loaded onto said connected platen assembly for subsequent movement of said connected platen assembly guided by said guide means from said loading position to said pressing alignment to enable the wheel loaded thereon to be pressed.
 2. A wheel press according to claim 1 wherein said wheel engaging means comprise a plurality of spaced wheel engaging membErs on each platen assembly for supporting the wheel therebetween, each wheel engaging member being selectively movable in a radial direction with respect to a central point on each respective platen assembly and said point coincides substantially with the axis of a wheel operatively mounted on the wheel press.
 3. A wheel press according to claim 2 and wherein each wheel engaging member is selectively movable along a track assembly fixed to the respective platen assemblies.
 4. A wheel press according to claim 2 wherein each engaging member has two operable press surfaces, a first press surface which extends tangentially to the wheel rim of a wheel located operatively on the wheel press and a second press surface which extends radially of the said wheel axis for engagement with the wheel rim.
 5. A wheel press according to claim 4 wherein the distance between each said first press surface and a track assembly for said wheel engaging members is greater than the width of said wheel rim.
 6. A wheel press according to claim 1 wherein said guide means guides said connected platen assembly for movement in a plane substantially perpendicular to the direction of relative movement of the platen assemblies during pressing operations.
 7. A wheel press according to claim 6 wherein each platen assembly is provided with substantially horizontal press surfaces, the upper platen assembly is selectively movable by said actuating means in a vertical direction towards and away from the bottom platen assembly which is restrained against movement in a vertical direction by said main frame, said guide means comprising a substantially vertical pivot means for connecting said bottom platen assembly to said main frame for guided pivotal movement of said bottom platen assembly in a substantially horizontal plane, and means operable to selectively pivot said bottom platen assembly about said vertical pivot axis to and from said pressing alignment and said loading position.
 8. A wheel press according to claim 7, wherein the means to selectively pivot the bottom platen assembly about its said vertical axis comprises a manually controlled extensible hydraulic ram connected between the bottom platen assembly and the main frame.
 9. A wheel press according to claim 1, and wherein said actuating means comprises a plurality of extensible hydraulic rams connected between the main frame and one of said platen assemblies which is movable towards the other platen assembly which is restrained against movement during pressing operations, and wherein displacement equalizing means co-operate with the movable platen assembly to prevent mis-alignment of the said movable platen assembly with respect to the said main frame.
 10. A wheel press according to claim 9, wherein said equalizing means comprises a positively acting mechanical assembly interconnected between said movable platen assembly and said main frame and arranged to positively counteract any tendency of mis-alignment between the said movable platen assembly and the said main frame.
 11. A wheel press according to claim 10, wherein said equalizing means includes a pair of shafts which extend along the said movable platen assembly in parallel spaced apart relationship remote from the said press surfaces, said shafts being fixed to the movable platen assembly for rotation about their longitudinal axes and being provided at each end with a sprocket or gear or the like fixed thereto, each of said sprockets or gears being arranged to engage with a length of chain or gear rack fixed to the main frame assembly in parallel relationship with the direction of movement of the said movable platen assembly, and wherein misalignment at one end of said one platen assembly is counteracted at the other end of said one platen assembly by torque transmission through said shafts. 